Month: August, 2016

Have you longed for the chance to sit outside and write while listening to the birds, smelling the sweetness of the grass and blooming trees, watching the beauty of the dancing trees, and feeling the warmth of the sun?

Experience the joy of writing in the spirit of Mary Oliver, while surrounded by the beauty of our natural world during a class being hosted by Annie Fitzgerald and Chris Wallach. During each class, time will be spent reading, writing, and sharing poetry outside.

I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?

Lindsay Sihilling shared this with me this morning, and I am happy to pass it on…

This is your conscience, artists and writers. You know that your conscience has tried in every possible subtle way to get you writing, drawing, singing, or dancing again, but you claim to be too busy, or too intent to begin as soon as….as soon as your child goes off to college, as soon as you retire, as soon as, as soon as. Both God and your conscience have given up on nuance and subtlety–therefore, this terrifying authoritarian figure as been summoned. He is pointing at YOU, you who wants to begin your memoir or novel, or join another choir or dance troupe. There is no such thing as “as soon as.” As soon as means “never.” “As soon as” means that someday you are going to DO regret having blown the invitation to create, to be an artist, to make marvelous music and messes and creations and gifts–gifts for you, and for us. It is part of our plan for world peace–“Practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty.” So get to it, okay? Today for one 30 minute pod, of scribbling, singing, gathering found objects from a stream or garden, for a collage.

What did people see in [Sri Anandamayi] Ma that so captivated their hearts? They found a combination of the sweetness of maternal affection and the profound depths of a mystical knower of God. In this fragile, delicate, young woman, they found the strength and energy of the Devi herself, together with the concern and care of an old and trusted friend.
— Swami Mangalananda

As every cell in Chile will tell
The cries of the tortured men
Remember Allende, and the days before,
Before the army came
Please remember Victor Jara,
In the Santiago Stadium,
Es verdad – those Washington Bullets again